During a cardiac surgical procedure, it is necessary to perform surgical procedures upon the heart while the heart is beating. The rhythmic beating of the heart generates motions that make it difficult for surgical procedures to be carried out directly upon the heart. In particular, during heart bypass operations, it is necessary to attach bypass arteries or veins to the beating heart by, for example, suturing. It can be extremely difficult, however, to perform such an attachment effectively when the heart is beating.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have an effective surgical device and method for dampening the heart motion in a local area on the heart where a surgical procedure is to be performed.